Continuum: Napa Valley’s Grand Vin

By: Esther Mobley

LOCATION

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There are some winery tasting rooms that exist to be tasting rooms, luring you not only with the promise of tasting but also with bocce courts, gift shops, cooking lessons or blend-your-own wine activities.

Then there are tasting rooms that are incidental, like Continuum’s — if you can even call its living room-like space, facing through glass doors toward a dramatic view of Pritchard Hill, a tasting room.

Continuum is the magnum opus of Tim Mondavi, Robert’s youngest son, who has made wine from this 41-acre Pritchard Hill vineyard since 2012. If Robert Mondavi Winery’s mission was to position Napa Valley wine on a world stage, Tim’s vision for Continuum Estate was to realize the valley’s potential for a grand vin, an ultra-premium wine from a single site. It’s a less proletarian view, to be sure, but for collectors willing to spend $225 on a bottle of wine, this Cabernet-based wine will not disappoint.

Visits like these have a high entry fee, $125 per person, because they are meant to complement wine purchases. Come here only if you’re serious about understanding this wine. Many wineries as highly allocated as Continuum do not allow the public inside at all. Their schedule can book up to two months in advance.

If you go, expect a tour of the vineyard and the Howard Backen-designed winery, alongside sips of Novicium, a Merlot-dominant blend made from the property’s younger vines. The seated tasting includes just one wine, the current vintage of Continuum, with olives, nuts and cheeses. It’s paired with what is surely one of Napa’s most scenic vistas. –February 2017